Known from the state of the art, as represented, for example, by German application DE 102006005365 A1, are methods for updating the firmware of a field device. German application DE 102005018910 A1 discloses a method for equipping a software controlled device with new software code. In such case, an old version of the software is completely replaced by a new version.
Disadvantageous, in such case, is that always a complete version of the software must be transferred to the field device and stored there. This causes a higher data loading of a communication connection to the field device and a greater memory requirement in the field device. This is, however, contrary to the well-known scarcity of resources typically existing in automation technology and its field devices.
Additionally, it is not possible to expand just individual functions of a field device without completely replacing the existing firmware.